ll her father

e. The truer reason was that Ethan Bennett would never forgive himself if his daughter had to beg a

orked everything: quietly, methodically, without asking

t Bennett Textiles' assets, its skilled workforce, its decades of client relationships. She wasn't naive enough to think passion a

ional banks and was

now worked in private equity, only to be told, gently, tha

addressed to no one, trying to think of any favor she

karound, no hidden solution that avoided involving someone with real capital. Bennett Textiles needed an infusion of money so large th

d Intern

gala had collided at exactly the right moment, as if fate had a sense of humor. A

y: a skilled labor force at a competitive cost, decades of manufacturing relationships already in place, a factory that could be mode

ess she owned, a deep green gown she'd worn to a cousin's we

ured to her reflection in the

mien Blackwood didn't grant

t she wasn't a stra